Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Open Library
American Libraries
TV News
Understanding 9/11- Usage
- Public Domain
U.S. government-produced film defending the World War II internment of Japanese American citizens.
Shotlist
Narr. by Milton S. Eisenhower, director of the War Relocation Authority. An historical record of the transfer of Japanese residents from the Pacific Coast to the American Interior as carried out the the U.S. Army and the War Relocation Authority. 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of them American citizens. Special attention given to possibility of sabotage & espionage.
"Japanese themselves cheerfully handled the enormous paperwork involved." Alludes to the auctioning of personal property by government agencies and businessmen, saying that it "often involved financial sacrifice for the evacuees." Narration says that evacuees "cooperated wholeheartedly," noting that "the many loyal among them felt that this was a sacrifice that they could make in behalf of America's war effort."
Bus and private car caravans, shopkeepers' stores, homes, restaurants, fishing boats are shown. Temporary quarters were in "assembly centers," at race tracks , and fair grounds. San Anita (sp.?) race track , a community of 17,000.
Depicts camp life: cafeteria, church services, nursery schools, people engaged in war-related work (making camouflage nets for army). Building new quarters in the desert for the final movement to the relocation camps. Smiling Japanese people being carted off on trains. Medical facilities, Americanization classes, schools, internal government, barracks-style housing, irrigation projects in desert.
Some evacuees were "permitted" to become fieldhands in sugar beet fields under appropriate safeguards. Describes the goal of the relocation as achieved when "all adult hands" are engaged in "productive work on public land or in private employment." And when "the disloyal have left this country for good."
Relocation seen as a humane act "setting the standard for the rest of the world in the treatment of people who may have loyalties to an enemy nation, protecting ourselves without violating the principles of Christian decency."
San Pedro, CA
<BR>
Reviews
Reviewer:
JSBejma
-
favoritefavoritefavorite -
October 12, 2022 (edited)
Subject: What About The Schmidts, the Steins, the Hintz', etc?
Subject: What About The Schmidts, the Steins, the Hintz', etc?
We had large German communities in our city and all over the hinterland. My dad's friend Hans Hunt was an avowed Nazi sympathizer. You didn't see them get rounded up.
Reviewer:
ColonelMac
-
May 30, 2018
Subject: Revealed Wisdom
Subject: Revealed Wisdom
Most of the comments here reflect what a good "counter-propaganda" job the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund did in the late 1980s. The "incarcerated for the duration of the war" and "100% loyalty" myths have become the revealed wisdom of these events in the public mind.
If anyone was allowed to voluntarily leave any of the camps and resettle elsewhere during the war, the first claim falls of it's own weight. 30,000 Japanese Americans did so. 4,000 left and attended college during the war.
Over 19,000 Japanese Americans applied to the Justice Department to renounce their American citizenship and be repatriated to Japan. This "lesson" should also include a copy of the letter, sent to the Sec. of the Interior, on behalf of 10,000 Japanese Americans in the Tule Lake facility, seeking repatriation to Japan to fight for the Emperor. It reads, in part, "Our primary objective is to expatriate or repatriate immediately when it is physically possible so that we may be able to contribute our war efforts during the hour of our national emergency." In the next paragraph, they say "But, here in this camp, we, who remain loyal to Japan, are forced to live among the individuals who are loyal to the United States of America."
This is not to argue that civil liberties were not violated. They were in this case, just as were the civil liberties of the over 6,000,000 Americans who were involuntarily conscripted into the Armed Forces, to fight and possibly die under pain of imprisonment if they refused.
The point is that one of the main objectives of this entire Group is teaching students "Reading Like a Historian". That entails questioning the sources, even if those sources were produced by the government. The principle tool of the historian is skepticism. Who wrote it? What is/was their background? What was the intended audience? What was the author's agenda?
Another thing that students must learn is not to approach a subject emotionally.
If anyone was allowed to voluntarily leave any of the camps and resettle elsewhere during the war, the first claim falls of it's own weight. 30,000 Japanese Americans did so. 4,000 left and attended college during the war.
Over 19,000 Japanese Americans applied to the Justice Department to renounce their American citizenship and be repatriated to Japan. This "lesson" should also include a copy of the letter, sent to the Sec. of the Interior, on behalf of 10,000 Japanese Americans in the Tule Lake facility, seeking repatriation to Japan to fight for the Emperor. It reads, in part, "Our primary objective is to expatriate or repatriate immediately when it is physically possible so that we may be able to contribute our war efforts during the hour of our national emergency." In the next paragraph, they say "But, here in this camp, we, who remain loyal to Japan, are forced to live among the individuals who are loyal to the United States of America."
This is not to argue that civil liberties were not violated. They were in this case, just as were the civil liberties of the over 6,000,000 Americans who were involuntarily conscripted into the Armed Forces, to fight and possibly die under pain of imprisonment if they refused.
The point is that one of the main objectives of this entire Group is teaching students "Reading Like a Historian". That entails questioning the sources, even if those sources were produced by the government. The principle tool of the historian is skepticism. Who wrote it? What is/was their background? What was the intended audience? What was the author's agenda?
Another thing that students must learn is not to approach a subject emotionally.
Reviewer:
Lschinaia
-
February 14, 2018
Subject: Creative Commons
Subject: Creative Commons
Hi there,
May I use parts of this video in a educational local commercial for the library? Please email me back when you can. I see it was posted as CC under the Creative Commons act. So just let me know.
May I use parts of this video in a educational local commercial for the library? Please email me back when you can. I see it was posted as CC under the Creative Commons act. So just let me know.
Reviewer:
starjk
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
November 19, 2017
Subject: Response to "tergium" Review
Subject: Response to "tergium" Review
Your claim is unfounded, untrue, and plainly antisemitic. I literally made an account on this site to discredit your "review". Don't waste the time of those using this film for research with hateful misinformation.
Reviewer:
Nutz4History
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
November 4, 2014
Subject: German American detainees
Subject: German American detainees
Loui6coins- Do your homework. German and Italian American families were made to register, and some ended up, like Japanese Americans, being sent to internee camps, like Crystal City. This also included, like the Japanese, US citizens, both naturalized and by birth, not just foreign nationals.
Reviewer:
Super YiaYia
-
August 7, 2011
Subject: WAR
Subject: WAR
AMEN to Fleabag2.
As well, do not forget Pearl Harbor, early Sunday morning. HUGE MOTIVATOR.
As Fleabag2 mentions, it is so easy to condemn now, 60 years later; unless 'one' was there..... none of us, can say, what we, would have done, or agreed to. We are humans, and we are very emotional and unpredictable. Especially under those 'kind' of circumstances.
I am truly sorry for the hurt and humiliation that my fellow Americans went through, no one deserves this in America, but again....
Thank you Fleabag2, I could not have said it any better, and as you said, what if........
Just Saying.............
As well, do not forget Pearl Harbor, early Sunday morning. HUGE MOTIVATOR.
As Fleabag2 mentions, it is so easy to condemn now, 60 years later; unless 'one' was there..... none of us, can say, what we, would have done, or agreed to. We are humans, and we are very emotional and unpredictable. Especially under those 'kind' of circumstances.
I am truly sorry for the hurt and humiliation that my fellow Americans went through, no one deserves this in America, but again....
Thank you Fleabag2, I could not have said it any better, and as you said, what if........
Just Saying.............
Reviewer:
fleabag2
-
June 14, 2010 (edited)
Subject: Explanation.
Subject: Explanation.
It's easy to look back in condemnation over something that happened sixty years ago, but if the same set of circumstances were in existence in June of 2010 as had existed in December of 1941 I guarantee you that we would react just like the people did back then.
And the reason that the neither Germans nor Italians were interned is probably due to the fact that, unlike the Japanese government, neither the German nor Italian governments launched a military attack against the United States until AFTER they declared war on us.
And the reason that the neither Germans nor Italians were interned is probably due to the fact that, unlike the Japanese government, neither the German nor Italian governments launched a military attack against the United States until AFTER they declared war on us.
Reviewer:
lui6coins
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
February 17, 2010
Subject: Japanese Relocation??????
Subject: Japanese Relocation??????
And thanks to REPUBLICAN and CONSERVATIVE Ronald Reagan, we apologied, and gave $20,000 to every family that was sent to the camps. FBI agent you are so full of it.
You have been doing this before the Japanese,
Do you remember the Trail of Tears? The Trains with the Apaches sent to Florida? The U. S. invasion of Mexico?
Why were the Germans and Italians not relocated? They had spies in the U.S. also.
You have been doing this before the Japanese,
Do you remember the Trail of Tears? The Trains with the Apaches sent to Florida? The U. S. invasion of Mexico?
Why were the Germans and Italians not relocated? They had spies in the U.S. also.
Reviewer:
Shyranis
-
favoritefavoritefavorite -
April 28, 2009
Subject: Not quite right
Subject: Not quite right
A video defending the stealing of property from hard working members my family that had nothing to do with the Nation of Japan (and its batshit crazy, let's hijack the country army) and ushering them into bleak concentration camps filled with inadequate (it was there, just when cameras were) medical care and bed bugs. This film is interesting to watch for a lark, but this video in the end is only trying to defend a a grave injustice that was on the verge of being nearly repeated about 7 years ago, and something that is currently happening in many other places across the globe with lower moral and ethical standards. It's a shame really, people never learn from history.
Reviewer:
ERD
-
favoritefavorite -
March 6, 2006
Subject: Doesn't prove its point
Subject: Doesn't prove its point
This film did not prove its point. The biggest mistake of the U.S. government was to generalize(never having full proof) that all Japanese people on the coast-aliens and citizens alike- were potentially dangerous and relocate them and take away their property..Even in times of war, the principals of our constitution must be followed. Assuming can be dangerous. The film only made me very sad.
Reviewer:
CODmasterJYK
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
September 29, 2005 (edited)
Subject: Racism
Subject: Racism
Bottom line.. irregardless of all the arguments I'm making.. it was wrong for the American government to single out 1 race, the Japanese, and send them to internment camps.
Reviewer:
tvc15
-
favoritefavoritefavorite -
August 26, 2005
Subject: RE:interesting film interesting comments
Subject: RE:interesting film interesting comments
Hopefully everyone knows about the brutality of Nanking. That really has nothing to do with American citizens. I can't really let the earlier comment stand as is. I hope that people are smart enough to realize the difference between solider's of the Empire of Japan and American citizens.
One ironic thing about the camps is that the Japanese-American prisoners were being watched from watchtowers by men, with machine guns, with last names like Russo, Mancini, Lombardi, Hoffman, Schmidt, Muller..........
One ironic thing about the camps is that the Japanese-American prisoners were being watched from watchtowers by men, with machine guns, with last names like Russo, Mancini, Lombardi, Hoffman, Schmidt, Muller..........
Reviewer:
MisterFantastic
-
favoritefavoritefavorite -
August 11, 2005
Subject: A Terrible Thing
Subject: A Terrible Thing
...Something to be ashamed of. You can say this was understandable and even suggest it was pragmatically necessary if you must. I don't agree but for a less enlightened time (?) it may have seemed so.
Nevertheless we should all be bitterly ashamed of this piece of our history, because real, deserved pride can only be achieved with a liberal exercize of shame. It is what makes us truer to our own ideals. Which is freedom, real freedom, not freedom as a trademarked brand rendered meaningless by misuse in an Orwellian manner.
Nevertheless we should all be bitterly ashamed of this piece of our history, because real, deserved pride can only be achieved with a liberal exercize of shame. It is what makes us truer to our own ideals. Which is freedom, real freedom, not freedom as a trademarked brand rendered meaningless by misuse in an Orwellian manner.
Reviewer:
Dr_Nibbles
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
July 9, 2005
Subject: a crime is a crime
Subject: a crime is a crime
and it stays a crime.
No crime can be justified through other crimes.
At least this is, how our constitutional state should work.
No crime can be justified through other crimes.
At least this is, how our constitutional state should work.
Reviewer:
arrad18
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
July 8, 2005
Subject: from experience
Subject: from experience
I have met the former internee of the camps. They have told me of the conditions under which they lived and the ways in which their lives were changed. I can understand the fear that prompted Executive Order 9066, but seeing the way is still resounds in the lives of the people it affected, I cannot agree with or applaud it. When one speaks of civil liberties, of our so-called inherent rights, one must remember that if that is what this country stands for, no person on this soil should have those rights voided. If it can happen to one group, it can happen to any. In matters of national security, solution is never simple, but the branding and stigmatizing of a people incurs the possible threat to the safety and liberty of all people. It is possible to give facts and figures to prove that the action was essential, but the unrecorded human experience, something we can all relate to, is the strongest argument of all.
Reviewer:
danr
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
June 3, 2005 (edited)
Subject: interesting film interesting comments
Subject: interesting film interesting comments
I would suggest becoming familiar with what the Japanese did in China. I mean really read about what happened in China in the late 30's and early 40's. If you really read about that time and place you will start to see why we did these things. Many of the comments here reflect a real ignorance of history.
http://www.tribo.org/nanking/
http://www.tribo.org/nanking/
Reviewer:
FBI_Agent01
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
May 10, 2005
Subject: So....
Subject: So....
First off, the camps were necessary in the first place. There were thousands of Japanese spies in the U.S before and after Dec. 7 1941. So your saying that we should allow the Muslim Extremists run loose in our country after they attacked us?! NO. But we can't blame all Muslims for that. The camps were just and right. The outcome after WW2 wrong. The jobs the Japanese had should have been given back. And thanks to REPUBLICAN and CONSERVATIVE Ronald Reagan, we apologied, and gave $20,000 to every family that was sent to the camps. FDR was a Democrat and a Liberal. And Rednecks don't vote for Liberals. georgeWbush (not the President).
Reviewer:
chicano
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
April 13, 2005
Subject: This is NOT JUSTICE!!!
Subject: This is NOT JUSTICE!!!
Let me help you sell your property...don't worry if you'll get it back.
Here, why don't you stay here, in HORSE STABLES...no, don't worry, there is ONE TOILET!!!
Your sons that are draft age, don't worry, they can prove their LOYALTY, by killing YOUR OWN...
I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO SEE THIS AS JUSTICE! IT IS NOTHING BUT DISCRIMINATION!!! YOU TREAT THESE PEOPLE LIKE ANIMALS!!! AND ANY RESPONSE AGAINST THIS WILL SURELY COME FROM "WHITE FOLK"...
Here, why don't you stay here, in HORSE STABLES...no, don't worry, there is ONE TOILET!!!
Your sons that are draft age, don't worry, they can prove their LOYALTY, by killing YOUR OWN...
I CANNOT BELIEVE THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO SEE THIS AS JUSTICE! IT IS NOTHING BUT DISCRIMINATION!!! YOU TREAT THESE PEOPLE LIKE ANIMALS!!! AND ANY RESPONSE AGAINST THIS WILL SURELY COME FROM "WHITE FOLK"...
Reviewer:
jasong
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
January 18, 2005
Subject: Perspective
Subject: Perspective
Simpily amazing. I first read the reviews for this piece and then viewed it, taking into consideration the views expressed on the site.
All historical and "consider the time and place" arguments aside, you can't dispute that the U.S. government told these people "we don't know if we can trust you; get on the bus".
The fact that the narrator states "christian values" at the end of the film only fortifies the chilling images. About half way through I started imagining the soundtrack of this film set to footage of Nazi Germany, and I think it would sync up well.
This film documents a sad, dark chapter of American history and by no means stands alone; in fact I imagine that some of the things taking place right now (the Iraq prision images come to mind) will be looked upon by our children with the same distain as we project upon this "Japanese Relocation" film.
While it's easy to make references to the Nazis when discussing a film like this, I believe that a much more contemporary reference is in order. Having close friends of Mulslim descent, I know that many of us have yet to learn from these past mistakes.
The only way to prevent this type of thing in the future is to make sure that we, and those who follow in our footsteps are made aware of the mistakes made by those who came before us.
All historical and "consider the time and place" arguments aside, you can't dispute that the U.S. government told these people "we don't know if we can trust you; get on the bus".
The fact that the narrator states "christian values" at the end of the film only fortifies the chilling images. About half way through I started imagining the soundtrack of this film set to footage of Nazi Germany, and I think it would sync up well.
This film documents a sad, dark chapter of American history and by no means stands alone; in fact I imagine that some of the things taking place right now (the Iraq prision images come to mind) will be looked upon by our children with the same distain as we project upon this "Japanese Relocation" film.
While it's easy to make references to the Nazis when discussing a film like this, I believe that a much more contemporary reference is in order. Having close friends of Mulslim descent, I know that many of us have yet to learn from these past mistakes.
The only way to prevent this type of thing in the future is to make sure that we, and those who follow in our footsteps are made aware of the mistakes made by those who came before us.
Reviewer:
georgeWbush
-
favoritefavoritefavorite -
December 30, 2004
Subject: again your redneck sentiments show
Subject: again your redneck sentiments show
so you know about the concentration camps.
tell me why this treatment was not applied to people of german ancestry?
your lenghty answer to try to explain away this atrocity is answer enough.
you are a racist mr "historians for the truth".
you are the worst of america.
unless for people like you america would be the shining beacon it was supposed to be.
tell me why this treatment was not applied to people of german ancestry?
your lenghty answer to try to explain away this atrocity is answer enough.
you are a racist mr "historians for the truth".
you are the worst of america.
unless for people like you america would be the shining beacon it was supposed to be.
Reviewer:
Spuzz
-
favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
September 12, 2003 (edited)
Subject: Meanwhile, back in Propagandaville..
Subject: Meanwhile, back in Propagandaville..
The preconception that All Japanese Cannot Be Trusted So Lets Move Them Away is explored here obviously.. And, while not over the top as "A Challenge To Democracy" it does provide a more persuading arguement about WHY it was done (although I don't agree with it in the slightest). Once again, the Japanese are all too pleased about this novel American ideas and off they go. They seem a bit TOO chipper about this, as this film purports that they were happily willing to give up their jobs, businesses, houses and way of life to be relocated. Suuuuuure.
Reviewer:
kfdave
-
favoritefavoritefavorite -
January 13, 2003
Subject: What a bunch of crap
Subject: What a bunch of crap
If you think the Nazis had the corner on propaganda in WWII watch this....One of the darkest (and mostly overlooked) periods in American history.Thousands of U.S. CITIZENS! sent to camps,but according to this film,they went happily.....yeah right,leaving their homes,buisnesses,friends...sure I'll go to desert!
My late father,and we're painfully white,showed me Manzanar (now a CA state historic park),when I was a kid,even as a kid I could feel how disgusted he felt about the place.....It made an impression,and is even more powerful as an adult when I look back,here's my dad,a white veteran of WWII (who went to Okinawa no less) almost in tears looking over what was left of the camp,("It was wrong David,just wrong...).I didn't find out 'til much later that one of his friends and his entire family got shipped off to Manzanar,all U.S. citizens except for the grandparents.They lost their nursery,and my Dad's friend lost his life fighting in Europe....We couldn't have Japanese-Americans in the Pacific you know,they'd all defect to Hirohito.
My late father,and we're painfully white,showed me Manzanar (now a CA state historic park),when I was a kid,even as a kid I could feel how disgusted he felt about the place.....It made an impression,and is even more powerful as an adult when I look back,here's my dad,a white veteran of WWII (who went to Okinawa no less) almost in tears looking over what was left of the camp,("It was wrong David,just wrong...).I didn't find out 'til much later that one of his friends and his entire family got shipped off to Manzanar,all U.S. citizens except for the grandparents.They lost their nursery,and my Dad's friend lost his life fighting in Europe....We couldn't have Japanese-Americans in the Pacific you know,they'd all defect to Hirohito.
413,486 Views
228 Favorites
IN COLLECTIONS
Prelinger Archives
Alameda Japanese American History Project 
Uploaded by Unknown on
